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Dell XPS 8700 - A11 Bios - Boot Time
I have a Dell XPS 8700. I upgraded from Windows 8.1 to 10. As recommended, I also updated the bios to A11 (the latest bios). I have an i7 processor, 24gb RAM and an SSD as the boot drive - so it should be a very fast machine.
The boot time for just the bios (i.e. excluding Windows 10) is 14 seconds - crazy long. It takes longer for the bios to boot than it does for the time it takes for Windows 10 to boot. Note, the bios boot time is confirmed by opening task manager and looking at the startup tab.
My previous bios version was A03, which was still slow at booting up (about 8 seconds for the bios to boot), but better than A11. I note that some of the other bios versions subsequent to A03 were also slow to boot and I deliberately downgraded from those versions to A03 to improve boot performance.
How can this bios boot time be speeded up because it doesn't seem normal for it to take so long?
Note - I have external USB hard drives and I have tried disconnecting these and it does not impact the bios boot time.
elliotw
28 Posts
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November 18th, 2015 10:00
When you say boot time of 6-7 seconds, are you talking about the time:
For 1, I'm getting about 13 seconds I think, for 2, I'm getting about 40 seconds, i.e. 53 seconds in total. On paper my PC should be very quick, so I'm assuming - and kind of hoping otherwise my system is massively under performing - your 6-7 seconds is simply referring to 1.
Thanks.
Prius2004
49 Posts
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August 9th, 2015 19:00
I have two XPS 8700s that were upgraded from Win 8.1 to Win 10 and our machines appear to have somewhat similar specs (my 8700s both have an i7, 16GB RAM, and SSDs).
I updated the BIOS to A11 and it is taking an eternity to boot Win 10 when compared to boot times when I was running Win 8.1 with BIOS version A10. In fact, I would be overjoyed with the 14 seconds you're seeing.
On the last restart of one of my 8700s, I saw 21 seconds in TM (and THAT was a restart). On a cold boot (machine completely shut down and then later powered up) I most recently saw 44 seconds!
I have quite a few connected devices (1 SSD boot drive, 1 internal HDD, 1 internal SSD, 2 external HDDs, 2 USB flash drives, 2 printers), but the configurations didn't change after upgrading to Win 10 and the A11 BIOS version; they're the same as when I was running Win 8.1 with the A10 BIOS.
I should note that, in addition to updating from A10 to A11, I also updated most of the drivers listed for my machines on the Dell support site (audio, wireless, chipset, network, IRST) so I'm not sure which is the culprit (or culprits) and I am also not sure whether or not the extended boot times are related to the OS itself. Regardless, the length is simply unacceptable and I can only hope someone at Dell has some insight.
Dan-H
1.2K Posts
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August 10th, 2015 12:00
The BIOS start time got really slow around A06 or A08.
90% of the time don't shut down my XPS 8700s now that they are on A10 due to the very slow boot times. In stead I put them to sleep and with win 8.1 it wakes fairly quickly.
Prius2004
49 Posts
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August 10th, 2015 18:00
I have also resorted to Sleep when I am not going to be using my 8700s for several hours or more. The boot times with Windows 10 and A11 are just stupid slow.
The boot times with Windows 8.1 and A10 are by no means as fast as they should be, but they are certainly not as slow as they are with Win 10 and A11.
I recall a few earlier BIOS versions where slow boot times were resolved, at least somewhat, by disabling the Bluetooth and/or wireless driver. However, I currently have Bluetooth drivers disabled and even that does not help with Win 10 and A11.
I hope Dell can come up with a resolution for this issue because it is annoying, unwarranted, and simply unacceptable.
SlimJ87D
87 Posts
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September 6th, 2015 11:00
Wow, is there anything worth it in A11? I'm on A10 and already noticed the boot difference from A06. I'm scared to do A11 now.
jpr9845
4 Posts
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September 6th, 2015 21:00
I just upgraded? to A11 and here is my results!
Dan-H
1.2K Posts
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November 15th, 2015 09:00
A11 is needed for Win10 from what I have read. I haven't gone there so I have not updated.
A10 is needed for GTX 9xx graphics cards.
A06 solved the beep on startup with GTX 7xx graphics cards.
I have one 8700 with A06 and one with A10 and the A10 is slower. I haven't timed it.
SlimJ87D
87 Posts
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November 16th, 2015 07:00
Hmmm, I've been running Windows 10 fine with A10, I'm scared of A11 because it sounds like the boot time will be longer.
ajdellaj
27 Posts
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November 17th, 2015 09:00
My Dell XPS 8700 built in late 2013 is running A03 BIOS, Win 8.1 on a 250gb Samsung 840 EVO SSD, and it boots in about 6-7 seconds which is pretty fast. I am tempted to upgrade the OS to Win 10 but am hesitant if Win 10 requires a BIOS upgrade to A10 or A11, which would apparently more than double the boot time.
I have another XPS 8700 built Nov 2014 on A09 BIOS, running Win 10 on a 250 gb Samsung 850 EVO SSD ,and it boots in about 11 seconds; slower but not bad.
Will my older Dell XPS 8700 A03 BIOS run Windows 10?
RoHe
10 Elder
10 Elder
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43.5K Posts
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November 17th, 2015 10:00
Anybody tried turning Secure Boot off in BIOS to see if that speeds up boot time?
ajdellaj
27 Posts
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November 18th, 2015 11:00
Yes, my pc takes about 6-7 seconds for item 1 above; from pressing the power-on button to the BIOS POST beep; and about 4 more seconds (a total of about 11 seconds) to load Windows (login prompt). Then, from entering the Windows login password or pin to the Windows Start screen is about 3-4 seconds. That's pretty impressive and very consistent.
By far the biggest improvement in boot times and overall performance was achieved by installing the SSD.
Incidentally and unrelated to boot times, one of my 4-gig memory cards failed yesterday and the pc would not boot at all (one beep and re-cycle); 2 months after the 2 year warranty expired. I pulled out the bad 4-gig stick and for now have 8 gig of memory (4+2+2) instead of 12. I ordered two Crucial 8-gig sticks to replace the 2-gig sticks.
ajdellaj
27 Posts
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November 18th, 2015 13:00
Hey elliotw. Per your original post; "Note, the bios boot time is confirmed by opening task manager and looking at the startup tab."
I just looked at my task manager startup tab for the A03/Win 8.1 machine and the last BIOS time was 7 seconds, consistent with my stopwatch. See screen shot below.
In comparison, my other newer XPS 8700 running A09 BIOS and Win 10 on SSD shows a BIOS startup time of 12.4 seconds.
Maybe it's not such a big deal after all, waiting an extra 5.4 seconds or so to boot. Overall these are pretty quick machines.....
whypayforit
2 Posts
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December 11th, 2015 18:00
I had the same issue on my new XPS 8700 going from A10 to A11.
Also showed a failure on device manager for Intel management engine interface.
The second part of the bios didn't take. My boot up Dell logo time was insane even after upgrading to and SSD.
I reset the motherboard CMOS jumper and this solved the problem. Move it from the 2 pins it's on to the other 2 pins. Then back to original.
More info here:
www.wikihow.com/Reset-Your-BIOS